geographically removed? eHalal

[Tyler Durden]

Variola:
By Halal (are you getting this term confused with that for Islamic version 
of Kosher? I think the name is similar but not this) Do you mean that system 
of monetary transfers whereby local services are exchanged in place of 
direct cash transfer? (In other words, if I want to sell something abroad 
the money is actually wired to a 3rd party who appears to the authorities 
not to have anything to do with any purchasing...this person then obtains 
services or perhaps local cash in lieu of the money he transferred. The 
system seems to operate largely on trusted intermediaries, along with a 
series of barters...)

Well, this system may technically be illegal, but it's done all the time in 
the wilds of Queens, both by middle easterners as well as South Americans, 
and I see little that could be done to stop it. Even the feds can't keep up 
with bugging all the Dominican brothels on Roosevelt Avenue.

It is, in effect, an analog Blacknet, though transactions are of course 
probably limited to the low 5-figure range without some kind of big tipoff, 
but I'm sure the locals are fully aware of the threshold values.

The only way are true police state could crack down would be to nuke Queens, 
which they might actually allow Al Qaeda to do if they chose to (seems like 
Al Qaeda could come in handy for a lot of things..."Oh, where did that 
baddie bin Laden go...guess we'll never find him...")

-TD




>From: "Major Variola (ret)" <mv at cdc.gov>
>To: "cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net" <cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net>
>Subject: Re: geographically removed?  eHalal
>Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:36:39 -0800
>
>At 10:33 PM 11/28/04 -0500, Steve Furlong wrote:
> >I see that an irrevocable payment system, used by itself, is ripe for
> >fraud, more so if it's anonymous. But why wouldn't a mature system make
>
> >use of trusted intermediaries? The vendors register with the intermedi-
>
> >ary *, who takes some pains to verify their identity, trustworthiness,
> >and so on, and to keep the vendors' identities a secret, if
>appropriate.
>
>Halal was deemed a terrorist weapon, and contrary to the treasury's
>policies, game over.